“Allright Derrick, up and at em.” Octavia kicked his shin as she stood over his sleeping form. The sun had long risen on the horizon, turning the sky a dark orange. Clouds lazily drifted through the sky in small clusters with a faint red outline. The scent of petrichor filled the air, along with the clamminess from the humidity.

  “We need to get going and hit level five before this storm. Not to mention that we still need to gather other resources.” Once again Octavia kicked Derrick’s foot, before she turned around, and glanced at Julia, who was standing a few meters away stretching.

  “Today, we are going to fight as a team. So, naturally, you take the front.” The rogue flashed the black-haired woman a toothy grin as she hefted her chakram around, resting it on her shoulders. The muscles in her arms felt taunt and exhausted, but that was okay. It just meant that she was closer than ever to her weapon.

  “You got it boss lady!” Julia as usual was overly happy with far too much pep in her step. Something not even this system seemed to take from her. Though as annoying as it could be, Octavia wouldn’t change the woman for the world.

  "Derrick, stay behind Jules so you stay covered, and I will scout ahead to keep an eye on the surroundings. But let’s be careful and not attract anything that we can’t put down easily.” Octavia laced her fingers through the chakram using it as a lever to twist her back and stretched her core a bit trying to ease some of the soreness left over from her long night of training. It was moments like this that reminded Octavia just how little time she had spent in the gym, and it left her cursing herself a bit.

  “Sure thing! Derrick and I work together pretty well in that matter. Plus, I’m the tank, so I can hold their attention, so it should be easy pickings if we don’t run into a group.” Julia slammed her shield into the ground with a soft crunch as she leaned over the top of it. A wide, toothy grin crossed her face as strands of her black hair fell over her eyes. “This is so exciting, though! Now that the initial shock of everything is over, I’m super pumped! Me, a tank! I’m going to put all my years playing D&D to use and make this class perfect.”

  “Ah, well, you have me beat there. I didn’t spend much time playing games like that, so I feel like I’m on the ropes trying to figure out how to place stats. Though the more I think about it, the more I start to think that the system rewards those with extra knowledge on a topic. For example, I unlocked inferior [Stealth]

  “Yeah! Derrick had the same thought, so I want to experiment today and see what counts as a skill in the eyes of this system. Perhaps you guys could be trained with those same skills as well.” The overly peppy woman nodded sagely as she held her fingers under chin. “Though I don’t think we know enough about the system yet to truly know. So hopefully, when we hit the next floor, we will have better answers.”

  “That’s the dream. This first floor was really easy, but I wouldn’t expect the same from the next one. Then again, this is a tutorial, so it might still be easy.” Octavia brought her weapon down, settling it onto her right shoulder and using the handle as a hand rest.

  “It could be like Dark Souls, where the tutorial is really easy, but once we leave the area, we get stomped.” Julia, bless her heart, only shrugged nonchalantly at the mention of us getting absolutely stomped by the monsters we were dealing with.

  “I don’t know what that is, but it sounds frustrating. You should tell me about it sometime.” Octavia shook her head and spoke with finality choosing to end the conversation early because she knew Julia would ramble nonstop otherwise.

  “Mmkay.” Her eyes flickered over to Derrick, who was now standing up and dusting off his robe. “Oh Derick, thanks for the robe last night. It was kinda chilly.”

  “No problem, Jules. Anyway, let me grab some breakfast before we go out. I don’t usually eat breakfast, but today I’m just starving, and I don’t want to snap at anyone over hunger.” A yawn escaped from the man’s lips as he tried to wipe the tiredness from his eyes. Which worked for the most part, yet the exhaustion still clung to him like a grim specter.

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  “You got it, have fun. I’m going to stay over here and keep gossiping with Jules. Oh, can you bring Julia and I something? I’m sort of hungry, and I’m sure she is.” For a second, a sense of normalcy settled over the woman, and her eyes glimmered with happiness. Octavia could almost forget that the system had come and upturned everyone’s life.

  “You ladies have fun talking about whatever it is you guys talk about.” The mage waved his hand dismissively, his tone deadpan as he wandered over to the backpack resting nearby.

  Julia could only giggle as she watched him, her eyes glimmering like twinkling stars as she studied his form. Octavia noticed it instantly, her eyes narrowing slightly, but she chose not to pursue that course of conversation. It wasn’t her boat to rock, and she didn’t care— at least, as long as it didn’t affect them negatively.

  “Anyway, I wonder what this class milestone is going to be like. Will our classes evolve?” The red-haired woman shook her head and tore her thoughts away from Julia’s budding feelings over her best friend. It didn’t bother her because she had feelings for that man. That boat had long since sailed, but it was a strange feeling watching two people who she considered family growing close like that. It elicited a sense of jealousy within her, but on top of that, there was a gnawing fear that she would be left behind.

  “Yeah, I have no clue either. I’ve read books where the system forces you on a path, but I’ve also seen ones where the classes evolve based on the choices you make and the skills you unlock. But seeing how the system unlocks skills, or you do based on usage, I’m gonna assume it’s some kind of evolution of the former. But I'm not sure what having ‘paths’ means.” There was a sense of longing in Julia’s voice, and Octavia didn’t blame her. She felt the same. There was so much to learn about the system, and it was as exciting as it was overwhelming.

  “In that case, let’s try to learn as many skills as we can before we hit level five. Granted, I’m not sure how easy that would be, but I think it could be very beneficial.” As Octavia spoke, she cracked her back, using her Chakram as leverage, moaning softly at how good it felt.

  “You got it! There was a bunch of stuff I wanted to try anyway, so I hope it’s fruitful. Oh! I meant to ask. You chose the rogue class, yeah?” Julia’s voice went up an octave as she leaned further over her tower shield.

  “Hm, yeah, why?” Octavia’s eyebrow went up slightly.

  “Ok ok ok ok, so, I had this discussion with Derrick while you were out doing your thing yesterday. But if what we talked about is true, then I wanted to bounce a few ideas off of you. As a rogue, you can operate independently from the main team, which isn’t an issue. But your paths of growth are myriad. You could use it to be a thief, or even embrace magic, empowering your build with unique stuff like darkness, or making yourself silent. Again, that’s only if what we speculated on to be true.” Julia rambled on, becoming more animated by the second. “Anyway, I’m digressing from the point I was trying to make. The point is, with this new system, anything is possible. All we have to do is push the limits and see what can be done.”

  “Yeah, it’s something to think about. I’ll keep that in mind. Tell me, Jules, what path are you trying to take for your class?” It was a lot to take in, since Octaviawas still trying to wrap her head around everything. When the path forward was as wide as the universe, it was easy to get lost.

  “I’m not sure. Doing this on the tabletop is far different from real life. But to be honest, I wanted to do something cool. Maybe use the power of darkness. But I’m not sure yet.”

  Octavia’s eyebrows drifted upwards. Julia? The small, lovable golden retriever-like woman she'd known for the past few years,wielding the powers of darkness at her fingertips? No, she couldn’t imagine it. “Really?”

  “Yes! Can you imagine how cool it would be? Ah, I’m so excited.” Julia giggled again, her laughter pealing like bells.

  “Ah yes, Jules, our dark overlord. Let us tremble in fear.” A look of faux horror crossed Octavia’s face as she grasped at an imaginary pearl necklace.

  “Yes, fear me and the darkness that I command.” Julia’s lips split into a large, toothy grin as her eyes glimmered.

  Octavia chuckled and nodded her head. “Good luck, great overlord.” Even as she was teasing her friend, her thoughts lingered on her own path forward. What path she want to take? The others knew exactly what they wanted since they had experience in either games or something of the sort. But for Octavia, it was not that easy.

  She didn’t know what she wanted to use, or even what the options were. For now, it was okay. It was just her and her chakram, and for now, that was fine. Perhaps in the future, as she learned more about herself and the system, a decision could be made. Until that time, however, Octavia would rely solely on her class skills until she decided what she wanted.

  Silence fell between the two as they watched the sun rise waiting patiently for Derrick to arrive with breakfast.